You can´t have lunch without a drink!!!

Hello campers! In this installment of our story, we finish our time in Argentina (for now!) and head to the land of the short people with a fine appreciation for food that can be consumed sans ham. That´s right--we are now in a world where not everything is required to be topped by ham, cheese, hardboiled eggs, and olives, usually simultaneously. But let´s not get ahead of ourselves, since I have only been in Ecuador for 2 days and really am not in the know yet.

Last time on our show, we had just returned to Buenos Aires to spend a disappointing night in a hostal in Palermo where our room was right between the reception desk and garbage truck activity outside. Thankfully only one night was required to determine that it was time to move on, and we left the next day for Mendoza. 12 hours by bus will get you there, and suddenly you are in the Argentine wine capital! We stayed at a great little hotel in Mendoza for about a week called the Hotel Zamora, which came complete with a very non-threatening dog who was there to attempt to restore Shannon´s faith in the species. Think it worked, at least to a certain extent.

While in Mendoza we did such things as drink wine, eat something other than steak, drink wine, continue searching for a solution to the good-looking man conspiracy, and drink wine. Mendoza is a lovley little town right after my own heart: These people believe in the siesta, and it is no joke. The whole town shuts down from 1:30 to 4:30 including stores, internet cafes, banks, travel agencies and any other place you can think of to go during lunch hour. The only places open are of course the restaurants, where one waiter was so offended that we were not ordering wine that the now famous line had to become the title of this post. Not ones to offend cultural sensitivitiers, we of course consented and agreed only a full bottle would be most appropraite.

Other things we enjoyed: A tour of the wineries of course where we drank wine (imagine that) and also got a tour of an olive oil factory and a family operation who make their own chocolates and about 100 different kinds of liquor. We had to get the dulce de leche, because really, where else but in Argentina are you going to find such a liquor? We also went on a tour to the mountains that was entirely in Spanish and therefore probably more informative to Shannon than to yours truly. But the scenery was beautiful, and you can check it all out here:

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Mendoza/?start=0

In the mountains we saw the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, Aconcagua, which tops out at around 21,000 feet, and Punta Del Inca, which is some kind of natural bridge made by the sulfer in the water or something like that. Again, my limited Spanish didn´t really catch any of that story, but at least the pics are cool!

After our relazing week in Mendoza, we returned to Buenos Aires. Shannon returned home and to her real life-and apparently time in the Harlem ER to deal with the real or imagined threat of rabies. So the good news on that end for all concerned is that she is getting treatment for it, which I understand invloves numerous shots given over a period of time. More on that when I find out.

I stayed on in BA to attempt to put a bit more Spanish under my belt, although it is entirely possible all I really did was take money out of my pocket and put it into someone else´s. Ah well, I did get to enjoy BA and lived in another apartment in San Telmo with a fun couple from Virginia No photos of that for a while though because I really have no idea how long it will be before I can download any more photos. Some wrap up pics are here though:

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Buenos%20Aires%20May%202007/

So my time in Buenos Aires has come to an end, and I am left to contemplate such things as:

The disturbing lack of vareity in the diet of such a cosmopolitan city; the thought process of a people who burned down the constitucion train station while we were in Mendoza to protest the fact that the trains never come (apparently not thinking about the fact that now, of course, they can´t come); dulce de leche and what this stuff is really made of; and the gene pool that makes all these people so damn good looking and how one can dip into said pool. Add to all this the puzzling lack of napkins in this country, and I venture to say I will need to spend more time in this country to figure out what it is all about.

Now I am in Quito, where I have spent about 4 hours on the internet and cropped up a bill of roughly 50 cents. Good thing it is so cheap as the days of cheap wine have clearly come to an end here! I am off to the jungle and the start of my volunteer work tomorrow, so will post more when I actually have something to say. :)

Be well my friends and live grandly!